Fantastic luxury city and wine tour with Helen! - We had an amazing day doing a private tour of Wellington and visiting several of the wineries in the Martinborough region with Helen Waddington of Silver Cloud tours. Helen... read more was gracious, warm, extremely courteous and very knowledgeable about Wellington and the nearby Martinborough wine region. She speaks very clearly, with lots of background information, and is the ultimate tour guide!

We enjoyed a drive through the city and then rode the cable car. We then drove through the neighbouring mountains to Martinborough, with a lovely stop for Devonshire tea and a brief garden tour at the beautiful Aston Norwood Country Gardens.

Through Helen’s personal connections with the wineries, we were able to visit some beautiful cellar doors and taste a wide variety of wines, including great visits to Palliser, Schubert, Tirohana and Luna. Lunch at Tirohana was absolutely superb with great service from Toby and his team. Martinborough is such a wonderful wine region, with great scenery as well, as we are so glad to have discovered it.

Helen’s vehicle was very comfortable and she drove very carefully and always looked out to help us in and out of the car. She was very responsive to our questions when we were booking the tour and she was very flexible in putting together exactly what we wanted for our day. Everything about the day was absolutely top notch and it was all included in the tour price.

Helen is a superb tour guide (and she made it feel more like spending a special day with a good friend!). While many tours deserve 5 stars on Trip Advisor, if it was possible to give 10 stars Helen would get 10! Our day with her was certainly a highlight of our lovely 6 week visit to New Zealand. We highly recommend her luxury tours and you will be lucky indeed if you get to spend a day with Helen. Thank you Helen for such a special day!

  Absolutely great tour which can give you a lot of informations of this small city. Very comfortable transport and easy to go. Helen is amazing tour guide. She can explain... read more a lot of interesting details about the city and things around. Absolutely not boring and I can not compare with any professional tour I have ever made. If you searching pearls around the city this tour will not disappoint you.

  Great way to see lots of Wellington Sites - I found this tour by accident, and was not disappointed. She explained a lot about her hometown, took us to many sights, especially ones that I really wanted to see... read more Zealandia, took us to the Cable Car Museum, rode the Cable Car and experienced how steep the hills are. We had high tea at the Roxy Cinema and Cafe. The food was excellent and walked around the Roxy and saw a real Oscar award and a display of "Precious". We went to Weta Caves and saw many props used in Peter Jackson's movies, drove around Seatoun Bay, saw Peter Jackson's house, site of the first Maori Landing of Kupe at Oruatiti Reserve, Mt. Victoria where we saw a 360 degree view of Wellington, the Rose Garden, Peace Flame Japanese Garden with waterfall, the "Beehive" Parliament grounds and to the Backbencher Gastropub to look at puppets of famous politicians. We had a very nice time and Helen. You won't be disappointed!

  Simply Amazing!! - Helen was simply amazing! We booked a wine tour with Helen based on all the wonderful TripAdvisor reviews and we are so happy we did! She arranged a full... read more day of wine tasting, lunch, a brief tour of Wellington and even a stop at Rivendell for some views of the LOTR filing locations.

She not only had a perfect itinerary, but she also had waters, mints, cheese and crackers available to us - she seriously thought of everything! The wines were delicious and the stop for lunch (included) had the best lamb shank I’ve ever tasted!

My husband and I just got back to our cruise ship and can’t stop talking about how fantastic this tour and Helen’s hospitality was. This was defiitely the best wine tour we’ve taken, and we’ve taken many!

Thank you Helen, for such a amazing day!

  Martinborough Wine Tour - Party of 5 adults looking around the great vineyards of New Zealand...what could be better? Our day trip was made better by having Helen from Silver Cloud be a... read more tour guide. She was fantastic. Very knowledgeable about the region & history. Her little stories kept us all enthralled. She was able to re-adjust our tour when time got tight due to our over stays in the wineries. (Sorry Helen). We can highly recommend Silver Cloud Luxury Tours....Best tour we've ever been on.

  Recently had the pleasure of a family tour (4 adults) with Helen & Jonathan (driver). Helen's knowledge of Wellington is amazing. The tour was of the city sights... read more & we loved every bit of it, especially the cable car ride & morning tea at the Roxy Theatre. Both Helen & Jonathan were accommodating & friendly, nothing was too much trouble. They let us take our time at the attractions that we were especially interested in & we were never hurried. We can't wait to cruise back to Wellington again take another tour with Helen. Thank you so much for our wonderful experience of Wellington & for the photos of our ship (Celebrity Solstice) departing Wellington.

  The Very Best! - We wanted an intimate private tour that covered a lot of ground during our one precious day in Wellington. Helen of Silver Cloud Tours delivered that and then some! We... read more rode the cable car, saw government buildings, St. Pauls Church, had a delicious lunch at Roxy Theater, took at tour of Weta Studios and finished off with a wonderful visit to Te Papa which Helen personally narrated. We told Helen about our interests (LOTR, Maori culture) and she thoughtfully incorporated that into our itinerary. I have a bad knee and Helen was always there to help me into the van which is super comfortable with captains seats. Helen is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about her home town of Wellington and kept us entertained and comfortable the whole time. After the tour was over Helen followed up that night with emails about things we might be interested in. We have been on quite a few private tours and Silver Cloud ranked up there with the best ever. Honestly we felt like Helen was a good friend rather than a tour guide. Prices are very reasonable for what you get too. Don't hesitate, book with Silver Cloud Luxury Tours!

  Helen has an approachable, vibrant personality with an encyclopaedia for a brain! So much stories she had shared during our transfer between Wellington and Kapiti Coast. Vehicle was classy,... read more clean and comfortable. Top notch service! Would use her again!

  OUTSTANDING in every way! - What a fantastic and outstanding day we (3 of us) spent with Helen. She promptly picked us up and took us all over Wellington, catering to our every desire,... read more and then some, in her very comfortable car. She is a knowledgeable, humorous, patient, generous, connected and enjoyable tour guide. We took 6 different private tours throughout New Zealand and Helen's tour was by far the best! Even though we had our tour day planned, we expressed an interest in seeing wildlife and in a flash she had us at Zealandia with a private tour! High Tea at the Roxy was amazing. Helen's depth of local knowledge is great and we wished we had another day to spend with her. Do NOT hesitate to book a tour with her. It will be a highlight for you.

  Wonderful Day in Wellington! - Three of us were on a Celebrity cruise and wanted a tour of Wellington. We didn't want to do a ship excursion, but we were willing to share a... read more minivan with others. Then we found Helen and we were able to do a private tour and what a wonderful tour it was! She suggested an itinerary and she was just fine with us modifying it slightly. She took us to all of the highlights in Wellington including the Cable Car in Kelburn, Mt Victoria Lookout, Weta Workshop, St Paul's Church, Te Papa Museum (we loved the Gallipoli Exhibit and the Marae). We had lunch at the Roxy Theater which is a lovely art deco building. Helen was an excellent guide, providing lots of information about Wellington and she was always willing to answer our questions. She also added personal touches to the tour: bottles of water, tissues, mints and a "sweet" surprise when she dropped us off at the ship. It was obvious that Helen loves and is very proud of her city! I would recommend her tour to anyone who will be visiting Wellington! Thanks again, Helen, for a great day!